Look After You
by isobeljones2000
Summary: Sometimes Nero just needs someone to look after him. Otherwise he probably wouldn't think anything of staying awake all night and not eating breakfast in the morning. Sometimes it's just up to Raven to make sure he's all right. Nero/Raven oneshot


_Tumblr OTP Prompt: Imagine Person A of your OTP decides to stay at work overnight to finish something important. In the morning Person B turns up with coffee and breakfast, which they have together at Person A's desk._

 _Just a bit of fluffy Naven for y'all because I felt like it. DON'T JUDGE ME!_

* * *

"Doctor Nero?"

Nero stifles a yawn and forces his head up as he recognises the quiet voice, subtly accented and, at this moment, questioning. Raven stands in his doorway, her head tilted slightly as she surveys the scene. Her employer's large wooden desk, covered with papers and documents. Her aforementioned employer, sitting in the middle of it all, looking tired but determined. The clock on the wall which reads 6:32am, in light blue letters.

"You've been up all night." It's a simple statement, not a question, and Nero's tired mind struggles to form an answer to it. Luckily a nod seems to suffice.

Raven shakes her head in exasperation, her expression unreadable. "Can I ask why?"

"I had some important work to finish off," replies Nero, finally finding his voice, which is slightly hoarse. God, he needs coffee. "Work that I wouldn't have time to do today."

"Did you finish it?" inquires the woman.

Nero surveys the piles of papers around him. It's hard to say. He's not really sure what would constitute 'finished' any more. "Nearly?" he says, an element of hope in his voice which Raven doesn't miss.

"Nearly," repeats his assassin, the scepticism in her tone making it clear she's not convinced.

"By a certain point, I didn't really see the point of going to bed," reasons Nero. "It would soon be morning anyway."

Raven rolls her eyes. "What was this point of no return?"

Nero checks the clock, before giving in to temptation and dropping his head back onto the soft padding of the leather-backed chair. It's a welcoming feeling. It seems to pull him in, like a sleepy magnet. "About an hour ago," he estimates, failing to hide another yawn.

He expects Raven to chastise him at this point, as she so often has to when she finds him in these situations, but to his surprise she doesn't say a word. A moment later he hears light footsteps in the room, and Raven is setting down something, a tray, on his desk. It contains a steaming mug of hot liquid, which Nero fervently hopes is coffee, and a couple of plates of toast, with a bowl of cereal on the side.

"Breakfast," Raven informs him, after he's stared dumbly at it for a few seconds.

"Did you make it?" Nero wonders aloud.

He couldn't see her face from his position, but he could imagine her expression. "Yes. It's not exactly rocket science, making toast, you know. I can manage that sort of culinary expertise."

"I never mastered it," muses Nero sleepily. "Making toast, that is."

"Yes," says Raven dryly. "Being a master super villain with the power over the largest and most prestigious villainous organisation in the world, I wouldn't suppose you'd really need to make toast, at the end of the day. Or the start of the day, for that matter."

Nero turns his attention back to breakfast, taking a long sip from the mug of coffee. It revitalises him somewhat; Nero would definitely miss his morning caffeine. Especially when he's half-delirious from lack of sleep. "That's good," he mumbles indistinctly, stifling yet another long yawn.

Raven affords him a half-smile. "Thought you might appreciate that."

"Yes," the villain agrees fervently, inhaling the steam as it drifts through the air, filling his office with the familiar aroma.

"I'll go and see if I can get anyone to cover your lessons for you this morning," said Raven matter-of-factly. "You won't be able to teach like this, at any rate."

"Stay." Nero suddenly really needs his assassin to stay with him, here. If she goes he fears he will fall asleep straight away. "Stay," he repeats insistently. "Please."

Raven looks unsure. "Well -" she says uncertainly.

"You can have some toast," offers Nero with a smile. "I won't eat it all."

"Ooh, toast," Raven says teasingly. "How could I resist?" But she's smiling now, as Nero looks hopefully at her. "Fine," she says after another moment's deliberation. "But if you fall asleep in your second year Alpha class lecture in two hours, don't blame me. I'll be back in a minute."

And that was how Raven ended up seated on Nero's large mahogany desk, nibbling at a slice of toast and taking methodical sips from her own mug of coffee, which she had briefly gone to get. Eating breakfast together was vaguely companiable, anyway, even if Nero did look dangerously close to falling asleep in his cereal.

Sometimes, Nero just needed someone to look after him.

She was probably the best he had for that.


End file.
